Absa is using a single view of the customer at data warehouse level to enable strategy decisions and save on costs at the same time.
The bank has achieved a single view of the customer at data warehouse level, and the information management division is able to use this to leverage information across the enterprise, says Dave Donkin, Absa group executive for information management.
The division is also using the data to conduct predictive analytics and mobilise collective intelligence, all with a view to improving business performance.
Donkin says 46 million records are pulled daily from various data sources into Absa`s data warehouse.
Information management is not an IT function, he adds. "We sit between the business and IT. We don`t get involved with the technology." Donkin says the information management division`s role is to enable information-based strategy formulation.
Although staff at the frontline do not yet have a single view of the customer, information management staff are able to access customer information files. "We are looking at that behind the scenes then push the leads through to the frontline," Donkin says. "All the analysis is done behind the scenes."
Last year Absa was awarded first prize for Best Practices in Predictive Analytics at The Data Warehousing Institute Best Practices Awards for 2004, held in Seattle in the US.
Kudos
The accuracy of the bank`s predictive analytics was demonstrated in a recent home loan marketing campaign.
"In the past we would send out to the whole client base," he says. "But now we were able to do propensity modelling to see who was most likely to take it up."
The bank targeted only 76 000 of its clients for the home loan campaign. Of these, 17 000 took up the offer.
"That`s a very high conversion rate," Donkin comments, adding that the bank was able to save on direct marketing and call costs as a result of the targeted campaign.
Other uses of the information include, for example, deciding how much cash should be loaded into a specific ATM, as well as ensuring a client does not receive multiple calls from Absa in a short period.
The bank`s advantage lies in the fact that it is a single group, with banking and insurance being conducted by the single entity, Donkin says. Another advantage is that when it was formed through the merger of several banks, integration was done at data warehouse level.
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